Geeky Chic

It’s repeated ad infinitum and it goes like this:

HLS alum: Where’d you go to law school?
Yale Law alum: In Connecticut, what about you?
HLS alum: Near Boston.

Five minutes later…

HLS alum: By Connecticut, do you mean Yale?
Yale Law alum: Yeah.

Five minutes later…

Yale Law alum: Do you know so-and-so from BC?
HLS alum: Naw, I went to Harvard.

Why do we engage is this awkward little dance?

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Oh, and to you gumshoes out there, one of the Yale Law alums with whom
I’ve had this conversation is looking through some public documents
that relate to Alito’s position on this 1985 case, Tennessee v. Garner,
which held that police may not use deadly force in stopping a fleeing
felon unless there is reason to believe that the individual threatens
the life of officers and the others.  Alito drafted a memo for the
Soliciter General’s office, urging them to file an amicus brief on
behalf of Tenneesee, that advocated the use of deadly force even if the
officer had no reason to believe that the individual posed any danger
to others.  The pre-Garner rule was a bit troubling, because
officers tended to shoot at black and white fleeing suspects at equal
percentages when they had a reasonable belief of danger to their lives
or to the lives of others, but when they had no reason to believe the
fleeing suspect was dangerous, they shot 12 black suspects or every 1
white suspect.  I haven’t seen this story in the news yet, and I
think that Alito’s memo would make a very good non-Roe story. (I can
hear Reverend Sharpton’s soundbite now, “Alito said it’s okay for the
police to shoot unarmed Black people.”)

Edit: Also, I remember the discussion of Garner in my Crim law class.  Professor Randall Kennedy
asked, “If you’re a Black man in America, and you haven’t done anything
wrong, and you see a cop, isn’t running away a pretty logical response?”

Here’s an older Scalito post.

I’ve been pondering lately why highrise living suceeds for the rich, but fails for the poor.  This article on the architecture of the recent French riots’ settings from Sunday’s NYT Magazine echoes this Keith Aoki piece
(warning: large .pdf link) from my Local Government law casebook. Aoki examines why urban renewal
failed as old neighborhoods were bulldozed to make way for those awful,
crack-ridden government-subsidized concrete towers:

The Times article points out a second flaw with the Le Corbusier
approach, it did not allow for economic mobility or flexibility once
people moved through different life stages:

I find it somewhat odd, how these same modern apartment towers (with
all the proper fixings) are what some members of upper-middle and upper
urban classes seek.  To them, Le Corbusier’s name is synonymous
with a famous chaise
meant to furnish such towers, and they pay for the pleasure of living
in these complexes.  For instance, Evil K spoke this weekend of
how one of his ex-co-workers complained that the St. Regis Residences
forced him to take his apartment with a finished interior.  So,
once it’s complete this month, his ex-co-worker has to have everything
ripped out and re-done.  One of SSRD‘s
friends this weekend told me that they wouldn’t even allow him to view
the units without being pre-approved for $1.69 million mortgage
(though, I understand the sales staff’s desire to keep out apartment
tourists with neither the intentions nor ability to make a
purchase).  One explanation, is that with the right details (i.e.
a Viking kitchen, a view, and a doorman), these towers are vertical
gated communities in the city center.

Philly was chilly and restful.  Thanksgiving was spent flipping through back copies of the New Yorker,
while staggering dishes in the oven (this year’s menu: (1) brined
turkey; (2) apple, cranberry, challah stuffing; (3) lobster corn
chowder paired with a light, souffle-style corn pudding; (4) pork loin:
(5) molasses-free gingerbread; (6) orange-syrup-drenched
Moroccan almond cake; (7) yams; (8) green beans; (9) spiced, mulled
wine, and other spirits; and (10) fresh cranberry sauce).  As
always, it devolved into an Ultimate New Wave dance party by 10:00 p.m.

Oddly, the images from the weekend that stand out are the  Hermes tie boxes in Evil K’s closet and the CheeseWiz on our authentic Philly cheesesteaks.

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Oh, and find out how prone you are to spotting hucksters (it doesn’t count as a quiz if it’s from the BBC).  Sadly, I scored an 11 out of 20.

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The East Coast cold and repeated NYC bed-bug infestation stories have convinced me to stay away from the Big Apple.

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Plane-reading: I don’t normally agree with what Old Hitch has to say, but here’s a very good essay on Nabokov’s masterpiece turning 50.

I never fell under the spell of the Birkin or Kelly bags, but I have to give the people at Hermes
credit, their slim orange tie-box incites a visceral reaction from me
(I can recall the texture of their stitched, brown gift ribbons, as
well). While staying at Evil K’s place this weekend, I spied four
haphazardly stacked gift boxes in his closet as I moved to and fro his
bedroom and living room, and I can’t remove their lasting impression
from my mind.

I’m off to see my favorite alcoholics in the city of brotherly love.

Have a good Thanksgiving, and be sure to observe Buy Nothing Day on Friday.  (I am against Ad-Busters’ counter-intuitive, anti-consumer, yet pro-consumer, blackdot shoe, but I can appreciate the Buy Nothing Day impulse).

You know Hopkins is a safety school when students turn it down for an extension program:

He gave us Oprah, and she gave us the summer of Faulkner, so she counts as literary and chic. (Take that, Jonathan Franzen. Actually, I like his work, so no real snark intended.)

And yes, I stole this from TK.  Stop, distracting me, man.

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A friend from law school, who coincidentally is the TA for my little sister’s Women’s Studies class, posted this rant somplace else, but she’s given me permission to paste it here as well.  Fun reading!

I just renewed my EFF membership, and I am now nudging you to join, or to renew too.

Support Bloggers’ Rights!

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US keeps control of the Domain Name System!  Hooray!

Here are the minutes from the UN Summit (via TK).

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Edit: I’ve realized that I’ve been all geek, with no chic on here
lately, so in the weeks ahead, I shall restore the Chic to 2.0.

I missed the guestlist cut-off time at a club this weekend, and grew
tired of the prospect of waiting in line with obnoxious people, and
then paying for privilege of dancing with aforementioned obnoxious
people.  So, instead, we headed to a purposefully obnoxious place
in North Beach that covered its window with all sorts of stickers from
Zagats and Timeout to attract customers.  The proprietors also saw
some tourist-value in pasting up two ASCAP* stickers and one BMI sticker, showing that they pay royalties for the music they play:

*ASCAP is the group that tried to force the Girl Scouts to
pay a royalty for songs sung around the campfire.  They are the
reason why horrible restaurants, such as TGIF make up “Birthday” songs
instead of singing “Happy Birthday.”

Two of my law school buddies have been infected with the same meme as
of late: the western media representation of Asians.  Miss Y. critiques Gwen Stefani and her Harajuku quartet and Miss. L. tackles the upcoming release of Memoirs of a Geisha.

I feel a bit guilty because after I saw the trailer for Memoirs of a
Geisha, I thought it would be fun to open up a modern geisha
revue.  Something cheeky and theatrical like the recent burlesque
wave or the transvestite-themed restaurants (isn’t AsiaSF
just a low brow, kitschy, transgender form of geishadom? I don’t mean to
demean the art of the old practice in making the comparison, but both
require a fair amount of artifice and practice).